


At the Narrow Window

by Hours_Gone_By



Series: Trope Bingo Round Twelve [8]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Rapunzel Fusion, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Imprisonment, M/M, Magic, Megatron's magical ability to tuck mass away into nowhere, Sorcerers, Spies & Secret Agents, Theft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 20:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18239615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hours_Gone_By/pseuds/Hours_Gone_By
Summary: The sorcerer visited every day and, because there were no doors in the tower, he had Soundwave draw him up through a window with the young mech’s long data cables. Knock Out would call out “Soundwave, send down your data cables and pull me up!” and Soundwave would do so. Then, when Knock Out was ready to leave, Soundwave would lower him down the same way.A Transformers/Rapunzel fusion.





	At the Narrow Window

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fairy Tale Anon](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Fairy+Tale+Anon).



> Written for [Trope Bingo](https://trope-bingo.dreamwidth.org) [Round 12](https://trope-bingo.dreamwidth.org/tag/round+twelve) (Prompt: Character in Distress) and the [What If? AU Challenge's](https://whatif-au.dreamwidth.org) March 2019 AU [Fairy Tale](https://whatif-au.dreamwidth.org/54311.html).
> 
> A commenter challenged me to write a Transformers fairy tale based on Rapunzel which, as they pointed out, presents a problem since Cybertronians don’t have hair (usually, see: Que, some incarnations of Alpha Trion) and most of them can fly. 
> 
> My brain went ‘Soundwave’s data cables’ before I’d even finished reading the sentence.

Once upon a time, there was a couple who wanted a creation and yet did not have the shanix to purchase the offerings for the priests to make the prayers to Vector Sigma for them. Nor did they have any thing they already had that they could give in offering. One day, one of them was gazing sadly over the back wall of their tiny garden and saw that the great crystal gardens of the castle next to their home had gone wild. There were many small crystals, shining in the sun and chiming sweetly in the breeze, and their colour and clarity were of great value.

Surely, the mech thought, a handful of those crystals would suffice to obtain the prayers that would gain them the creation they desired. A small handful, in such a large and neglected garden, would not be missed. And so, that very night, when the moons were hidden behind clouds, and it was dark as dark could be, the mech went over the wall and gathered up a handful of crystals. They brought them the next day to the temple, and Vector Sigma sparked their creation who, from the sweet chiming of the crystals that had bought him life, was designated Soundwave.

Time passed, and when Soundwave received his adolescent upgrades, his creators decided they would like another creation. Now, at this time they had more shanix than they had had when trying for Soundwave, but they said to each other, “taking the crystals worked so well to get us Soundwave and now the garden is more overgrown than ever. Why should we not do as we did before to get us a second creation?”

And so, on a night when the largest moon was a new moon and clouds covered the second moon the same mech went over the wall and gathered up a handful of crystals as they had before. But this time the mech who owned the garden caught them, appearing from behind one of the largest crystals and staring down the thief with optics that were red as rubies and black as onyx. Such optics were the mark of a sorcerer, and the mech stumbled backward in shock and fear.

“Well, well,” the sorcerer drawled, with a thump of their staff. “Seems my thief from all those meta-cycles has returned to steal from me again.”

“Y-your pardon, my lord, please!” stammered the mech. “I had thought this section of the garden abandoned, that none would notice or care if a few small crystals went missing!”

The sorcerer looked annoyed. “It’s meant to evoke crystals in their natural state, it’s not abandoned. I suppose I can’t expect peasants to follow _trends_ , though. Not that that makes thieving okay. What are you doing with them? Selling them?”

“N-no my lord,” the mech hastened to say. “We – my husband and I – give them as offerings at the Temple of Primus, so that the priests will intercede with Vector Sigma to give us a creation.”

“Oh, the priests are selling them instead, that makes it so much better,” the sorcerer muttered. “From your second burglary here I assume you’re after a second brat? Did something happen to the first?”

“No, he is fine and healthy,” the mech assured him.

“Hm.” The sorcerer twirled his staff and looked thoughtful. “I’ll make you a deal, crystal-thief. You can take those crystals you’ve got in your hot little hands there, and I _won’t_ turn you into something,” he shuddered, “ _nasty_ and _bumpy_ if you send your first creation to me once he’s come due for his adult upgrades.”

“Uh, yes my lord, but…why?” the mech wondered.

“Because I’m going to keep him as an assistant and I won’t have some boring peasant superstructure defacing my tower. Now, do we have a deal?” the sorcerer wanted to know.

The mech agreed, and the sorcerer let them leave with their crystals to get their second creation. This creation was named Shockwave, for the shock his creator had suffered when they met the sorcerer.

Well, the years passed, and Soundwave came due for his adult upgrades. Only then did his creators tell him of the bargain they had made to gain his sibling.

“Our creators are behaving illogically,” his sibling observed. “I fail to see why you should be obligated to fulfill an agreement made without your knowledge. You should refuse to go.”

But Soundwave, who knew more of magic and sorcerers than his sibling and who listened much and said little, shook his head. He took nothing with him when he left, crossing over the same wall his creators had climbed and made his way through the gardens to the castle doors.

Knock Out was surprised, at first, that Soundwave had shown up, but he was far from displeased. He did get Soundwave his adult upgrades, fine ones, and Soundwave’s completed superstructure was strong, fashion-forward, and graceful.

Although, when Knock Out locked Soundwave up in a tower with only one door, which was then bricked up, and narrow windows in the highest rooms, Soundwave did wonder who he was supposed to be fashionable _for_.

Soundwave’s task was to search through the vast datatrax of knowledge that Knock Out had accumulated over the centuries and this he did hour after hour and day after day. All he had for company were visits from the sorcerer when he needed something and a magical bird that could travel anywhere and see anything. This the bird often did, and she would come back and tell Soundwave of everything she’d seen. Sometimes Soundwave would stand at the narrow window of his chamber and look out and wonder if he would ever see any of those places and people for himself.

The sorcerer visited every day to collect the data Soundwave compiled for him and, because there were no doors in the tower, he had Soundwave draw him up through a window with the young mech’s long data cables. Knock Out would call out “Soundwave, send down your data cables and pull me up!” and Soundwave would do so. Then, when Knock Out was ready to leave, Soundwave would lower him down the same way. Soundwave would have left himself, but the windows were all magicked to keep him inside and besides, where would he go?

Now, it happened one day that Knock Out had been and left and Soundwave was standing at the narrow window of his chamber, looking out, and a mighty warlord flew by and saw him. The warlord could see just enough of Soundwave to know he was graceful and elegant. The warlord circled the tower, saw that it had no door, and became curious. He sent a servant in the form of a sleek black cougaraider to spy on the tower and let him know all the doings around it. The servant spent seven days and seven nights watching the tower and everyone that approached it and every thing that happened around it. This servant, whose name was Ravage, returned to his master on the eighth day and told him of all he had seen and heard.

“This Soundwave must have power in his own right for the sorcerer to confine him so,” the warlord mused. “I must pay him a visit and see of what use he may be to me.”

Well, Ravage had told the warlord that the sorcerer always visited of an evening, and so the warlord went one morning to visit this Soundwave he was so curious about. The warlord knew Soundwave would not let down his data cables for someone other than the sorcerer, but this was not a problem for a mech who could fly. Nor was the warlord afraid of the sorcerer, who he knew to be small and not powerful enough for his spells to break through the enchantments on the warlord’s armour. The warlord simply did not want to be interrupted, nor to tip his hand before he decided whether to bring Soundwave into his service or no.

Now, Soundwave had been in this tower for a long while and had not seen anyone other than Knock Out and the magical bird, Laserbeak, in all that time. The sound of the warlord’s powerful flight engines next to his tower took him by surprise but even so he walked calmly to his window to see what was going on. At first, he did not know what to think of the jet hovering outside his window even though it was clearly someone’s alt mode. Soundwave could not think what they would want, and so he tilted his head curiously and waited for his visitor to speak.

“Greetings, my friend!” the warlord said. “I am Lord Megatron, ruler of the neighbouring land of Kaon. Who are you and what purpose do you serve here?”

Soundwave did not like to speak in his own voice and quickly spliced together the sounds from his own memories to reply in the voices of Knock Out and of Shockwave and their creators.

“Soundwave compiles data for Knock Out,” he played back.

If the warlord was surprised to be addressed in such a fashion, he did not show it. “Knock Out is the sorcerer, isn’t he? Does he keep you here against your will?” Knock Out was smaller than Soundwave but Megatron knew that didn’t matter when it came to magic.

It was true because even if Soundwave liked to manipulate data all day, he could not leave if he wished – and he did so wish, to see what he could only learn about from datatrax and Laserbeak. The sorcerer had imprisoned him with the bricked-up door and the magic that wouldn’t let him leave on the windows. Soundwave nodded once in agreement.

“I see,” the warlord muttered. The warlord too had once been trapped, though under the ground and not high above it in a tower, and he disliked seeing someone else trapped like he had been. “And will he pursue you if you were to be freed?”

Again, Soundwave nodded once in agreement. The warlord was confident in his own safety from magic as he wore enchanted armour that protected him, but Soundwave had no such thing to keep him safe. The warlord said he would think on it and return the next day with a plan to free Soundwave from his tower.

Well, the next day the warlord returned but, because he knew that a jet hovering outside the tower was like to be seen and talked about, he determined that he should get inside the tower instead.

Now, the warlord was very tall, and broad-shouldered as well, and he would not fit through the narrow windows. But even though he wasn’t a sorcerer he had some magic of his own. He could make himself smaller, small enough that it would be easy for Soundwave to draw him up through the window. So he did, and he called up, “Soundwave, send down your data cables and pull me up!” and Soundwave did.

Megatron was bigger than Soundwave even when he’d made himself smaller. Soundwave had not had to look up at anyone since he’d bid farewell to his sibling, Shockwave.

Laserbeak, ever curious, flew over to have a look at their new visitor. The warlord held up his arm for her, and she alit on his wrist, unafraid.

“Your familiar?” the warlord asked, stroking under her beak with the back of one finger. Soundwave shook his head. “A companion then.”

Soundwave nodded and played back on his visor a memory of watching Laserbeak fly away, then one of watching her return.

“So,” Megatron mused, “she and Knock Out may enter and leave, as can a stranger such as myself. There must be a spell to keep only you in – is it on the whole tower, I wonder, or only each window?”

Soundwave did reply because he did not know.

“Show me what you do here for the sorcerer,” Megatron commanded.

Knock Out had never told Soundwave he was not to show anyone the work he did, not expecting Soundwave would ever see anyone else. Nor did Soundwave feel any loyalty to Knock Out who had, after all, imprisoned him. So, Soundwave felt nothing other than free to show Megatron what he did there for Knock Out.

“Amazing,” Megatron murmured as he watched Soundwave fly through compiling data and decrypting old spells. “Never have I seen such skill. Soundwave, tell me, would you if I were to free you would you be willing to work for me instead?”

Soundwave paused and looked up at Megatron with a questioning tilt of his head.

“It would be true employment, unlike your servitude here,” Megatron promised. “I would not lock you up, and I would see you were treated fairly. You would have access to whatever information you wanted, study however you wished.”

And, Soundwave thought, he would be able to see his creators and sibling again. He would be able to see the lands and peoples and all the things he had only ever seen through Laserbeak. He would be able to fly, for even though he had a flight alt of his own, he could not, of course, use it, confined as he was.

“Wouldn’t you like that, Soundwave?” Megatron coaxed.

Well, Soundwave knew that he wanted that very much and so he nodded again. Knock Out disliked his silence, but Lord Megatron seemed not to mind it at all.

“Excellent!” Megatron said, pleased. “I will go and have a place prepared for you. I will bring a servant to help get you free of this sorcerer.”

Megatron, for all he was large and powerful and protected against spells, knew that sorcerers are clever and full of tricks and that no one is invulnerable. He was sure the sorcerer would give chase, and he needed to make sure they could get away. Merely killing the sorcerer might well set off magical defences that could put Soundwave at risk – and the sorcerer might be made useful in the future and Megatron was not one to waste a resource. So, some subtlety was needed.

Megatron could not stay long, and Soundwave was sorry to see him go because the warlord could be very charming when he wished to be and even Soundwave could get lonely. Knock Out talked mostly of himself, which Soundwave did not find as interesting as the sorcerer did, and Laserbeak could only play back things she had already seen and heard.

Soundwave spent all that night watching recordings of the lands outside and wondering which he might visit first once he was free.

The next day Megatron came to the tower again and called, “Soundwave, send down your data cables and pull me up!” which Soundwave did. Megatron greeted him and held out a blue data cassette which transformed into a mech no higher than Soundwave’s knee.

“You sure got some weird digs, here,” the small mech commented. “My name’s Rumble. Boss wants me to help you out of here. Gonna be a few days, though, you got somewhere you can hide me?”

Soundwave gestured for Rumble to follow him and brought the young mech down to the tower’s kitchen, where Knock Out never went. Soundwave pointed to the rafters and Rumble jumped up into them, transforming back into a data cassette, the better to hide.

“Now then,” Megatron said when Soundwave returned. “Let us sit, and I will tell you of my lands, which you have yet to see.”

This they did, for many hours, until it came time for Megatron to leave lest he was caught by the sorcerer and their plans brought to nothing.

The next day went as the one before, only this time Megatron brought a red data cassette identical to the servant he’d brought the day before, and this one was called Frenzy. Soundwave had Frenzy hide in the kitchen rafters as well, where the two servants could easily be retrieved.

“We are almost ready,” Megatron said when Soundwave returned. “Let us sit, and I will tell you of my people, who you have yet to walk among.”

So they did, again for many hours, and Megatron left later than he had the day before but still in enough time to avoid being seen by the sorcerer.

Megatron came again on the third day, bringing Ravage with him this time and Ravage was also hidden in the kitchen rafters.

“Tomorrow,” Megatron told Soundwave, “after the sorcerer leaves, gather my servants from the kitchen and wait for me by the window. We will get you out and use the cover of night to help us escape.”

Soundwave nodded to show he understood and, putting a slender hand on Megatron’s strong arm, looked up at the warlord and showed him images of flight. For even though Soundwave _could_ fly he had never been able to and he wanted to know what it was like.

Megatron told Soundwave about flying, and talked to him of more besides, for long hours as they had before, and this time stayed too late to get away and not be seen by the sorcerer when he came.

Now, even using his magic to make himself smaller Megatron was too big to be hidden on a rafter in the kitchen even had they had time to get there, so Soundwave hid him in the bedroom instead. Knock Out’s visit seemed to go on longer than usual, no matter what Soundwave’s chronometer said, but finally, the sorcerer left, and Soundwave was able to go to Megatron.

“That was close,” Megatron said, frowning. “I would take you from here tonight, but the preparations at the border that will keep us safe from the sorcerer’s wrath once we cross are not yet complete. It is only one more day, however.”

Megatron made to leave, but Soundwave put a hand on his chest to stop him. Megatron looked down into Soundwave’s visor.

“What is it, Soundwave?” he asked.

Soundwave edited Megatron’s own words for a reply and played back, “I would take you…tonight,” as he shut the bedroom door behind him with a data cable.

Well, Megatron certainly had no desire to refuse, so he took Soundwave in his arms, and they turned out the lights, and what happened from then till morning is no one’s business but their own.

All the next day Soundwave could hardly focus on his work, so eager was he to be gone, but he did his best, not wanting the sorcerer to become suspicious. But Knock Out suspected nothing and, once he had gone, Soundwave went to the kitchen and retrieved Rumble, Frenzy, and Ravage. He brought Laserbeak with him too, because he was fond of the bird and did not want to leave her. Once it was dark, he waited by the window, and it was not long before he heard Megatron call up, “Soundwave, send down your data cables and pull me up!” and so he did, more eagerly than ever he had done before.

Megatron greeted Soundwave happily, then had him stand back. Megatron let himself grow to his full size and strength and shattered the wall with one mighty blow, making space enough for not only Soundwave but himself to fly out.

“Follow me,” the warlord commanded, “and quickly!” and out of the tower he leapt, transforming as he went, and Soundwave followed as fast as he could. He had never transformed before, but this is something every Cybertronian knows, and he only lost a little altitude changing form.

The flight was every bit as wonderful as Soundwave had dreamed it would be, not that he was given long to enjoy it. The sorcerer knew the very instant the spells he’d cast on the tower windows were quite literally broken, and he was giving chase on the land below. Megatron and Soundwave were above him but being in flight does not put one out of the reach of a sorcerer, and Soundwave knew they would not be safe until they crossed the border. But Megatron had a plan, and he had told Soundwave what to do. The moment Soundwave saw Knock Out on the land below them he set Frenzy loose. Frenzy landed and set up such a noise and hullabaloo that Knock Out could not bring himself to drive through it lest he damage his audials and was forced to drive around.

But Knock Out was very fast and he knew his lands far better than Megatron did, and certainly more so than Soundwave. It wasn’t long before he caught up with them and Soundwave knew that he would be readying a spell at any moment. Megatron had planned for this, too, and as soon as Soundwave saw his former captor, he set Rumble loose. Rumble landed and beat the ground until great cracks formed in it and Knock Out once again had to drive around.

It was when they were almost to the border and safety that Knock Out caught up to them once again. This time Soundwave set Ravage loose and Ravage menaced Knock Out with his bright, sharp claws and his bright, sharp teeth. Knock Out tried to drive around him but if Knock Out was fast, so was Ravage and this threat to his finish was too much for the sorcerer, who was even more vain than he was powerful. So he stopped in his chase and Soundwave and Megatron were able to cross the border and activate its defences. And so, Soundwave was free and got to safety at last.

Megatron brought Soundwave to his mighty fortress of Kolkular and gave Rumble, Frenzy, and Ravage to him as his own servants. It was not long before Soundwave had access to more data than that about magic and still less time after that before it was said that Soundwave knew every thing that happened or was said or done in Kaon. Soundwave sent for his sibling and Shockwave developed many great and terrible spells and weapons for the warlord. Megatron was very pleased with all of this, and more and Soundwave became his most trusted and most loyal advisor. Together they made Kaon a prosperous and powerful land and for all I have ever heard they are living there still.


End file.
